


Balancing Act

by Mrs_Don_Draper (orphan_account)



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Angst, Banter, Drunk Dialing, Drunken Confessions, Late Night Conversations, M/M, No Smut, Tension, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-21 13:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7389469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Mrs_Don_Draper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robbie discovers that he likes sport's candy...once it's accidentally been left fermenting in a barrel for a while. He drunk dials Sportacus to tell him about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Balancing Act

Sportacus gets a phone for his airship after the Mayor has a few mishaps while trying to send a letter via the airtube. He thinks it’s kind of neat to have a direct line to a Mayor, and more importantly, to Lazy Town. But with his crystal and the letters from the kids, he doesn’t have much reason to need it, and it often completely slips from his mind until the Mayor—or Bessie—calls him.

It’s very late the next time his phone rings. At first, he thinks the pealing bells are in his dreams, but then he remembers the Mayor and the kids, and he sits up in bed. He reaches over to grab the phone off the cradle when his airship helpfully brings it to his side, wondering what could be wrong.

“Hello, Mayor? Are you alright? Is someone hurt?”

There’s a muffled sound on the other end of the line.

“Mayor? Are you there?”

“No, Sportafreak. It’s just me.”

“Robbie? How did—?”

“Never mind that, never mind that. You’re in the yellow pages.”

“Robbie, it’s two in the morning. Why did you call me? Is something wrong?”

Robbie snorts a laugh.

“Did you know that if you let sport’s candy sit in a barrel long enough, you get something even _better_ than cake?”

Sportacus hears the sound of liquid pouring into a glass of ice. He hears the sounds of swallowing, of a satisfied sigh, of a glass knocking hard against a table. Sportacus sighs. The last thing they needed in town was Robbie Rotten on moonshine.

“How much have you had tonight?” he asks.

“I thought there was no such thing as too much sport’s candy, Sportaloon!" Robbie teases. He smacks his lips. "If _this_ is what you’re giving those three foot tall nightmares, it's no wonder they act like they’re invincible and always need you to rescue them!”

Sportacus is wide awake now, pacing his ship in the light of the moon. He walks over to one of the huge front windows and looks down to where he knows Robbie resides. He notices there's been a gentle snowfall since he went to sleep. He's weighing how he wants to ask his next question. One false move, and Robbie would hang up and possibly do something foolish or dangerous.

“Maybe I should come down there.”

“And do what, elf?”

Sportacus ignores the insult. Robbie always resorted to name-calling when he felt trapped.

“What do _you_ want me to do, Robbie?” he asks, trying to be diplomatic.

Robbie mutters something that Sportacus only half-catches, but Sportacus gets the gist. His cheeks get hot; he's never heard Robbie talk like that before.

“Robbie, I think you’ve had enough sport’s candy drink tonight.”

“Sportajerk,” Robbie interrupts, “living in this town is hard enough without you pretending that you've never thought about it before. Do you know how hard it is to hate you when this entire rest of the town are those miserable children?”

Sportacus' eyes go wide, and he stops his pacing, chest get tight. Robbie cared? Robbie cared about him? Did he even mean any of that? More liquid pours, and Robbie curses.

“ _Robbie_.”

Robbie ignores him.

“Tomorrow will go back to more of the same. You’ll flip, and I’ll flop, and the brats will laugh, and you’ll dance with the pink girl, and everything will go on and on like that until the end of time.”

There’s a pause while each man waits for the other to speak first.

“It _is_ hard,” Sportacus finally admits. He hopes Robbie is listening. He hopes he hasn’t hung up. “I don't like fighting you, Robbie.”

“Then why don’t you leave Lazy Town forever?” Robbie asks.

And there’s no malice in his voice this time. The word doesn’t echo off the walls. It was softly, sadly murmured into the receiver. Suddenly, Robbie’s plans to get rid of him don't seem quite as nonsensical. Robbie just didn't know how to express himself until tonight. Sportacus doesn't know what to say. He finds himself slipping back into superhero mode already:

“You should get some sleep, Robbie. It’s very late.”

Robbie laughs again.

“One day, Sportaflop, one of us will surrender, and this whole town is going to fall apart.” Sportacus hears him swallow and wipe his mouth off with the back of his hand. "And then we'll all be free."

Robbie hangs up before Sportacus can speak. Slowly, he hangs up his phone and walks back to his bed, though he isn't very tired at all.

Sportacus doesn’t get much sleep that night, which is unfortunate. Because there’s a snow monster on the loose in Lazy Town, and Robbie is nowhere to be found.


End file.
